Today my coworkers asked me to lock door and arm alarm(with comfort access), and tried to manually open door and exit, as an emergency maneuver.

The front driver door, and both rear doors behaved as expected, namely, occupants could single pull inner door lever to raise the latch pin, and a second pull to unlock(and trigger alarm).

The front passenger door latch pin could be raised with single pull, but popped right down after the inner door lever was released. Occupant had to first push central lock switch once, and then could double pull to exit. Is this normal?!?

All door latch pins operate as expected with central lock switch(without arming alarm), and manual lock(push down the pin), namely, when locked, double pull to exit.

I'm having this problem with my F10 with the driver's door. It occurs less than 5% of the time. I've read that it's a common problem caused by a worn part inside the door. I don't like messing with removing upholstery. So, it's on my list when my car goes in for service next time.

I haven't checked with our newer BMW's, but with the old ones "hard locking" the car with the key fob disabled the interior door handles, too. This prevent(s/ed) anybody from breaking the window (BMW = "Break My Window") and opening the door with the inside door handle.

I live on the Redneck Rivera. Years ago, some BMW owner was out drinking and cruising for women. His buddy just got drunk, but the BMW owner got lucky and headed up to some woman's hotel room for a quickie. He "hard" locked his drunk, passed out buddy in his BMW where he'd be safe. The problem was that his buddy woke up and had to take a piss, really bad. Uh, oh.

Not sure about F10, but F30 door panel is relatively easy to remove(demo'ed by safelite tech):
1. one pull from bottom end of trim piece to pop out, there is a big tab at bottom end
2. two #10 hex screw to undo
3. one yank of bottom front edge(towards engine bay) of door panel to pop out

Today my coworkers asked me to lock door and arm alarm(with comfort access), and tried to manually open door and exit, as an emergency maneuver.

The front driver door, and both rear doors behaved as expected, namely, occupants could single pull inner door lever to raise the latch pin, and a second pull to unlock(and trigger alarm).

The front passenger door latch pin could be raised with single pull, but popped right down after the inner door lever was released. Occupant had to first push central lock switch once, and then could double pull to exit. Is this normal?!?

All door latch pins operate as expected with central lock switch(without arming alarm), and manual lock(push down the pin), namely, when locked, double pull to exit.

Many many others have had this happen. The diagnosis was a bad actuator. Many threads on this.

Many many others have had this happen. The diagnosis was a bad actuator. Many threads on this.

There are many BMW threads about door lock not working, but there are only few about F30, and there is none that matches my symptom, namely, the actuator works just fine in all normal use cases except after the alarm is armed.

It may be true the actuator just starts to go bad, and will gradually match the symptoms of the other threads, OR it may not.

OR F30 inner door handles are supposed to be disabled with armed alarm?!?

Can other festers with factory alarm and comfort access try the following and report back if door can be unlocked? Thanks!

1. have someone in the car(or roll down the window and stick arm out with FOB), arm the alarm with FOB or comfort access.
2. make sure the red clown nose is blinking(alarm is active).
3. now double pull on all inner door handles

Do all of your doors open after step#1, 2, and 3? Or does the alarm disable inner door handles?

There are many BMW threads about door lock not working, but there are only few about F30, and there is none that matches my symptom, namely, the actuator works just fine in all normal use cases except after the alarm is armed.

It may be true the actuator just starts to go bad, and will gradually match the symptoms of the other threads, OR it may not.

OR F30 inner door handles are supposed to be disabled with armed alarm?!?

How does your 2014 328i behave?

Well, my 328 doesn't have an alarm, so I can't speak to that.

But my actuator issue was very similar. It started off as an odd isolated incident--I pulled the door handle and the lock went up and back down. Pressed the central lock button, and it was fine. It would happen very rarely. Then it started more frequently. Then the passenger side started to do it on an isolated basis. Then I took a video, brought it to the dealer, and they replaced both actuators under warranty.

But my actuator issue was very similar. It started off as an odd isolated incident--I pulled the door handle and the lock went up and back down. Pressed the central lock button, and it was fine. It would happen very rarely. Then it started more frequently. Then the passenger side started to do it on an isolated basis. Then I took a video, brought it to the dealer, and they replaced both actuators under warranty.

Both my front door actuators were replaced under warranty when the lock pins moved up slowly.

This round the front passenger pin moves up and down smoothly, but when alarm is armed, front passenger has this "hard locking" behavior that Auto mentioned.

BTW it is not rarely, nor frequently, it is repeatable every single time.

My guess is that wait-and-see is prudent, also will check with coding forum, maybe now 3 of my 4 doors are in "break-my-window" mode, while the remaining one is "hard locking" mode, and that can be coded/cleared.

I haven't checked with our newer BMW's, but with the old ones "hard locking" the car with the key fob disabled the interior door handles, too. This prevent(s/ed) anybody from breaking the window (BMW = "Break My Window") and opening the door with the inside door handle.

This old thread pops back up at coding forum yesterday, so there seems to be a "safelock", or "man trapped"(?!?) mode that can be toggled by coding.

Apparently German forum talks about the small window getting smashed and inner handle pulled to access even when alarm is armed, so BMW owners try to code the "safelock" feature.